


Color Me Concerned

by paradoxicalconverse



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Chemistry AU, Complete, F/F, science AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-10
Updated: 2015-10-10
Packaged: 2018-04-25 18:08:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4971115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paradoxicalconverse/pseuds/paradoxicalconverse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The chemistry AU no one asked for where a lab experiment goes sideways and leaves Laura worried about her useless gay lab partner, Carmilla.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Color Me Concerned

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: please-say-nine.tumblr.com  
> 100% open to suggestions and fic prompts over there!

Carmilla Karnstein was not failing Advanced Chemistry.

Carmilla Karnstein was _not_ failing Advanced Chemistry.

Okay.

She was failing Advanced Chemistry.

The only reason she hadn’t completely flunked out yet was due to who she had been partnered with for the semester.

“I swear to _god_ , hydrochloric acid is not a _joke_ ,” had been the first thing she had heard her lab partner, the tiny-yet-seemingly-indestructible Laura Hollis mutter when she’d poured the clear liquid into a graduated cylinder and Carmilla had been dangerously close to spilling it all over herself when she’d knocked into the vial with her elbow, tousling it.

Laura, as much as Carmilla despised herself for having to admit it, looked utterly adorable in science goggles, leaning over the table in order to get a read on the titration. “I know it’s not, cupcake.”

“So be more careful next time, _cupcake_ ,” Laura muttered, hissing angrily as her thumb slipped and the titration turned dark pink. “ _Damn_ it. You try, you haven’t done anything other than sit there and stare the table anyways.”

“Well aren’t you cheerful today,” Carmilla murmured, sliding up next to Laura and pressing the smaller girl flush up against the counter behind her, laughing as she felt rather than heard Laura’s breathing increase at the sudden contact. “Don’t work yourself up too much, cutie,” she whispered, leaning into Laura’s ear then snaking her arm around to grab hold of the glass vial containing the acid. “I’m just grabbing the stuff.”

Brown eyes dilated immensely, Laura exhaled deeply and shook her head. “We’re in the middle of a lab. Was it necessary to get that close to me? Ever heard of personal space?”

Carmilla was quite pleased to hear the unquestionable shake in the younger girl’s voice as she spoke. “I didn’t see you complaining, cutie.”

“You are unbelievable, did you know that? Just pour the acid into that vial over there. And for the love of god, _please_ don’t spill any on yourself. Falkner wasn’t kidding when he said that it will literally burn you.”

“Well, color me concerned, cutie.”

“Did you just make a pun?”

“What?”

“Color me concerned? Because if you overset the acid, it colors the titration pink and—you know what? Just pour the damn titration so that we can get our results. I want to finish this so I don’t have any homework tonight.” Laura was becoming increasingly testy, hands drumming anxiously against the table.

“And why would that be, sundance? Got any other plans? You seem like such a _rule-breaker_ to me.” Carmilla measured the acid and placed the vial back onto the surface of the table.

Laura’s snarl stiffened. “Maybe I do have plans tonight. Maybe I have plans with some _one_ tonight. You don’t know.”

“Right, cutie. You have some super-secret plans with a special someone, and I’m a deadly creature of the night that only feasts on blood to survive. In other words, my guess is that you’re marathoning Doctor Who tonight in the dark. Alone.”

Carmilla smirked, leaving the tiny girl’s mouth bobbing silently as she tried to find words. Her nose scrunched in the middle, eyebrows lowering. Which, in turn, was answer enough to Carmilla’s unspoken question. “That bunched up little face that you make when you’re angry is hilarious, buttercup.”

Laura clenched her fingers in frustration, a sound halfway between a whine and a growl emanating from the back of her throat. Carmilla pulled her lower lip between her teeth as a smirk kissed her lips and turned, carefully measuring the acid into a beaker. “You know, cutie, it would be easier if you just made up some results here.”

Instead of acting appalled, Laura slumped forwards, fingers running through her hair in frustration, almost as a sign of surrender, burying her face into her arm. “I give up.”

“Is this how much I add? And what do I do if I spill it on myself? Is it supposed to burn?”

“Don’t spill it on yourself.” Laura’s head was still buried in the crook of her arm, goggles crooked off the side of her head.

“Too late.”

Laura’s eyes widened as Carmilla’s comment registered, head shooting from off the desk to where she could view Carmilla, a hole burning through her checkered flannel, skin a nasty red and Carmilla’s jaw quivering to hold back exclamations of pain.

Laura’s shriek emanated through the classroom. Several students jolted and glanced up as Laura hauled Carmilla away from the table and shoved her arm under the faucet. Ice water began to spurt from the sink, Carmilla grunting in pain as the skin continued to blister and redden. “You’re so stupid,” Laura murmured as she carefully ran her thumb, although instead of sounding menacing, she sounded concerned.

“I know, cutie,” Carmilla replied, teeth sunk into her lip so hard that a bead of blood sprouted from the puncture. “I’m fine, though. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“That’s a lie and we both know it.” Still holding a death grip to Carmilla’s wrist, she reached over and grabbed a roll of ace bandages and aloe gel, towel-drying her arm with the bottom of her lab coat. A small exaltation of pain slipped unchecked through Carmilla’s lips as the cool gel was rubbed gently against the burn. “That hurt,” she hissed through closed teeth.

“Hush,” Laura reprimanded.

Carmilla fell silent. Flexed fingers and a stiffened spine were the only indications that she was still in pain. “Everything okay over there?” Falkner called from his desk, swiveling to get a better view.

“Just great,” Carmilla replied, sarcasm seeping through her words. Falkner shrugged, satisfied, and went back to his book

“Shh.”

She pinned off the ace bandage wrap, gently squeezing Carmilla’s forearm reassuringly. “Is it okay?”

“It feels fine, cupcake,” Carmilla responded nonchalantly.

“So,” Laura shifted uncomfortably. “Maybe I shouldn’t have been so harsh to you earlier. Um, sorry about that.”

Carmilla cradled her arm to her chest and shrugged. “I was pretty rough back. We can call it even. But we never got those results.”

Laura laughed lightly. “We can make them up. If we work fast, we can probably finish the lab before class is over as well.”

“Speaking of.” Carmilla shifted nervously. “Doctor Who is boring and incredibly scientifically inaccurate. You should--ah--spend the evening with me instead. Maybe we could go to dinner or something.”

Laura’s eyes widened in surprise. “You’re going to insult my taste in tv shows and then ask me out on a date in the same sentence?”

“Yes.”

“What a gentlewoman.” However, a smile had permeated Laura’s façade of indifference, and a smirk broke out over Carmilla’s face.

“I’ll pick you up at seven, then?”

Laura beamed.

 

**Author's Note:**

> lemme know in the comments below?


End file.
